Journal of Current Issues in Crime, Law and Law Enforcement recently published a research study of the Hoboken bar scene identifies a connection between the drinking establishments’ secondary wait staff and customers’ irresponsible behavior and alcoholism.

James C. Roberts, associate professor of sociology and criminal justice at University of Scranton, said the blame is on female secondary servers “who exclusively cater to severely intoxicated customers who can’t exert effort to wait in a line at a bar.” He said many bar owners acknowledged that they hire females as secondary servers to appeal to mostly male bar patrons, sell more alcohol and thereby increase profits.

Academic journals have largely focused on bouncers and occasionally bartenders in conducting studies, Roberts said, and nothing had been written on how secondary servers encourage heavy drinking.

In the spring and summer of 2001, Roberts and a female research assistant spent six months undercover in Hoboken. The pair, posing as a typical bar-going couple, made 148 individual observations lasting a total of 444 hours on Friday and Saturday nights in Hoboken bars.

Roberts said the study is absolutely still relevant in analyzing how bar venue characters lead to recurring problems such as barroom violence and drunk driving. He said he visits Hoboken on a recurring social basis to corroborate that.

Sean Hession, owner of Willie McBrides, said the study contains a lot of no-brainers about problems that spawn from barflies who have been heavily drinking, but he also felt a good amount didn’t necessarily apply to Hoboken.

The study reported that bar owners and managers are motivated by profit and thus are not likely to change their serving methods, and that regulations restricting service to intoxicated patrons are loosely enforced.

“We are in the business of serving alcohol, but don’t label us all the same,” Hession said.

“You see shot girls in more of a club scene or vacation spots,” Hession said. “Of course it’s going to lead to trouble, and that’s why I don’t do it.”

He also noted the professor’s antiquated description “crowded, smoky bar establishments,” considering state legislators banned smoking from New Jersey restaurants and bars in 2006.

Roberts’ study, which was funded by the Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice and the First Securities Service Corporation, was submitted as his dissertation at Rutgers University in 2003. The study was. It is now being published in the March edition of the Journal of Current Issues in Crime, Law and Law Enforcement. The issue can be purchased at www.novapublishers.com.